KWSO News for Mon., Nov. 2, 2020

Election Day is tomorrow.  Ballots must be received by 8 p.m. on Election Day to be counted.  The Jefferson County Clerk’s Office is open 7am to 8pm tomorrow.  You can take your ballot there – or to any county clerk’s office or place it in an official Ballot Drop Box.  Any Oregon Ballot will be counted if it is turned in regardless of location.   At the end of the day Friday (10/30/20) 60% of Jefferson County ballots had been returned – 37% of Warm Springs Voters have returned their ballots.    The Ballot Drop Box in Warm Springs is across the street from the post office and today there is a Ballot Box available for Wasco County Voters at the Simnasho Longhouse until 2pm.   You can find ballot count updates and election results at the Jefferson County  WEBSITE

There was 1 new case of Covid-19 reported in Warm Springs last week and that result came in on Friday.  47 people were tested Friday at the Health and Wellness Center.  There are 6 active cases of Covid-19 and 6 close contacts being monitored by Public Health.   4044 Covid-19 tests have been done since the pandemic began.

COVID-19 has claimed two more lives in Oregon, including the second Crook County woman in two days, raising the state’s death toll to 691, along with 524 new cases according to the Oregon Health Authority early yesterday.

In a letter to families on Friday, the Jefferson County 509J school district reported encouraging news from the state about updated metrics and guidance for reopening Oregon schools.  Key changes include:  Incrementally increased access to in-person instruction at the elementary level + A two week “look back” at the metrics data rather than one week at a time over a three week period + Removes state positivity rate in favor of county positivity rates.  Updated metrics data will be available this afternoon and the community will be updated on any next steps by the end of this week. 509J remains committed to a return to in-person learning but also supports families in making their own decisions for what is in the best interest of their students.

Preschool Promise, a state-wide initiative to increase the number of quality, affordable spaces for children ages 3 or 4 years old, has expanded to Central Oregon, and recruitment is open.  Preschool Promise is a model for a publicly-funded, high-quality preschool system that leverages high-quality, local and culturally-relevant early child care and education programs and makes them available to children living at 200% of the poverty level. Access‌ ‌to‌ ‌quality‌ preschool programming‌ ‌ensures‌ ‌critical‌ ‌childcare‌ ‌needs‌ ‌are‌ ‌met‌ ‌and‌ ‌provides‌ ‌young children with development‌ ‌opportunities‌ ‌that‌ ‌directly‌ ‌connect‌ ‌to‌ ‌success‌ ‌in Kindergarten and beyond. The Early Learning Division of the Oregon Department of Education, through a grant process, awarded Preschool Promise contracts to 8 local providers, including  Madras High School